A Man for All Seasons Quotes

Margaret

" 'God more regards the thoughts of the heart than the words of the mouth.' Or so you've always told me."

More

"A man should go where he won't be tempted. Look, Richard, see this."

More

"And when we stand before God, and you are sent to Paradise for doing according to your conscience, and I am damned for not doing according to mine, will you come with me, for fellowship?"

Cromwell

"Are you coming in my direction, Rich?"

Cromwell

"Boatman, have you a license?"

Rich

"But every man has his price!"

More

"Death... come for us all, my lords. Yes, even for Kings he comes, to whom amidst all their Royalty and brute strength he will neither kneel nor make then any reverence nor pleasantly desire them to come forth, but roughly grasp them by the very breast and rattle them until they be stark dead! So causing their bodies to be buried in a pit and sending them to a judgment... whereof at their death their success is uncertain."

More

"For Wales? Why, Richard, it profits a man nothing to give his soul for the whole world... But for Wales!"

Cromwell

"Get sure. No it's not like that, it's much more a matter of convenience, administrative convenience."

Rich

"He said 'Parliament has not the competence'. Or words to that effect."

Wolsey

"I believe you believe that. You're a constant regret to me, Thomas. If you could just see facts flat on, without that horrible moral squint; with just a little common sense, you could have been a statesman."

Roper

"I can buy a clock, sir."

Henry

"I have no Queen! Catherine is not my wife and no priest can make her so, and they that say she is my wife are not only liars... but traitors! Mind it, Thomas!"

More

"I neither could nor would rule my King. But there's a little...little, area... where I must rule myself. It's very little-less to him than a tennis court."

Rich

"I'm adrift. Help me."

Common Man

"I'm breathing... Are you breathing too?... It's nice, isn't it? It isn't difficult to keep alive, friends - just don't make trouble - or if you must make trouble, make the sort of trouble that's expected. Well, I don't need to tell you that. Good night. If we should bump into one another, recognize me."

Rich

"I'm lamenting. I've lost my innocence."

Margaret

"In any State that was half good, you would be raised up high, not here, for what you've done already. It's not your fault the State's three-quarters bad."

Common Man

"Is this a costume?"

Common Man

"It is perverse! To start a play made up of Kings and Cardinals in speaking costumes and intellectuals with embroidered mouths, with me."

Henry

"It was no marriage; she was my brother's widow. Leviticus: 'Thou shalt not uncover the nakedness of they brother's wife.' Leviticus, Chapter eighteen, Verse sixteen."

More

"Listen, Roper. Two years ago you were a passionate Churchman; now you're a passionate-Lutheran. We must just pray that when you head's finished turning, your face is to the front again."

Wolsey

"More! You should have been a cleric!"

Roper

"Must everything by made convenient? I'm not a convenient man, Meg - I've got an inconvenient conscience!"

Steward

"My master Thomas More would give anything to anyone. Some say that's good and some say that's bad, but I say he can't help it - and that's bad...because some day someone's going to ask him for something that he wants to keep; and he'll be out of practice."

Alice

"No - and if I'm to lose my rank and fall to housekeeping I want to know the reason; so make a statement now."

Wolsey

"No, Catherine's his wife and she's as barren as a brick. Are you going to pray for a miracle?"

More

"No, sheer simplicity. The law, Roper, the law. I know what's legal not what's right. And I'll stick to what's legal."

Steward

"Now, damn me, isn't that them all over! Miss?...He...Miss?...Miss me?... What's in me for him to miss?

More

"Oh, Sweet Jesus! These plain, simple men!"

More

"Silence gives consent"

Cromwell

"Sir Richard is appointed Attorney-General for Wales."

More

"That's very neat. But look now... If we lived in a State where virtue was profitable, common sense would make us good, and greed would make us saintly."

Common Man

"The Sixteenth Century is the Century of the Common Man. Like all other centuries."

Steward

"The great thing's not to get out of your depth... What I can tell them's common knowledge! But now they've given money for it and everyone wants value for his money. They'll make a secret of it now to prove they've not been bilked... They'll make it a secret by making it dangerous...Mm... Oh when I can't touch the bottom I'll go deaf, blind and dumb."

More

"The law is not a 'light' for you or any man to see by; the law is not an instrument of any kind. The law is a causeway upon which, so long as he keeps to it, a citizen may walk safely. In matters of conscience- ."

Margaret

"Then say the words of the oath and in your heart think otherwise."

Preface

"Thomas More, a Christian saint, as a hero of selfhood."

Henry

"Thomas, Thomas, does a man need a Pope to tell him when he's sinned? It was a sin, Thomas; I admit it; I repent. And God has punished me; I have no son."

Norfolk

"We're supposed to be the arrogant ones, the proud, splenetic ones- and we've all given in! Why must you stand out? You'll break my heart."

Henry

"Well, I dance superlatively! That's a dancer's leg Margaret! Now that's a wrestler's leg. But I can throw him."

More

"Well... I believe, when statesmen forsake their own private conscience for the sake of their public duties...they lead their country by a short route to chaos. And we shall have my prayers to fall back on."

More

"When a man takes an oath, Meg, he's holding his own self in his own hand. Like water. And if he opens his fingers then - he needn't hope to find himself again. Some men aren't capable of this, but I'd be loathe to think your father one of them."

More

"Why not be a teacher?"

Norfolk

"You might as well advise a man to change the color of his hair! I'm fond of you, and there it is! You're fond of me, and there it is!"

Jailer

"You understand my position, sir, there's nothing I can do; I'm a plain, simple man and just want to keep out of trouble."

Alice

"Young Roper! I've just seen young Roper! On my horse."